What do I Need?

Phil, Phil, Phil........

Lot's of stuff in the book of Phil.

I finished reading the book of Philippians today and I was struck by something.

NEED

So here is what Paul says about need in Philippians Chapter 4.

"I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty.  I have leaned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want.  I can do all things through Christ who gives me strength."

That last little part on there is great....it's daily inspiration to hang on the fridge...I can do all things....I LOVE THAT.

Here is a little problem I found with that one.

I found that I was approaching God with some spectacular plan of my own design and pretty much telling him that "I can do ____________ through Christ who gives me strength.  Right God? Right?"

Then thinking, "Come on power of God to do whatever I want."

Except that God is not a genie in a lamp, and he is not Santa Claus.

He is God.

And thinking about that makes my heart pound a little harder, because God is beyond my ability to explain, or comprehend and I certainly don't wield an ounce of power over him and I'm pretty sure he can't be manipulated my my crafty little plans.

So doing "all things" must have a deeper meaning than getting God's power to do what I want.

So I had to think about something else too.

Paul says he knew what it was to need and to have plenty.

I have had a lot of experience with having plenty, most of us in the western world have.

We have so much that we have to do things like go on diets and purchase magazines about controlling clutter, or hire organizers to tame the stuff in our homes.

I'm not against having plenty, in fact I think it's very nice, and I think God is okay with having plenty too.

It's what we do with the plenty that concerns him (but we'll save that fun topic for another day).

Need

I have known for a long time that God will supply my needs.  He has a long track record with me and many other people of doing so.  He has met my needs in some very creative ways and more often than not he has given me my wants too.

But not always.

Because you know what happens to a person who gets everything they want.

It is something called, a spoiled, rotten brat.

And God doesn't want a bunch of spoiled rotten brats running around.

So sometimes he strips us down I think.  He clearly did it with Paul.  Paul's life was in danger many times, and ultimately he lost his life for the sake of Christ.  It is believed that he had his head chopped off.

So I started thinking, "Didn't Paul NEED his head?"

Why did God not supply that need?

Then I thought of another story I heard just the other day about a missionary who ended up being shipwrecked and slowly died of starvation.

His last act in this life was to write praise to God as he lay dying.

That guy needed some food and God didn't give it to him.

So how are we to take this all in?  Clearly there are things people need to live and sometimes they don't get them.

We have two choices:  

1. We can decide that God must not REALLY supply what we need, which would make him a liar and not very good at all.

OR

2. God defines our needs in a very different way.  He is ultimately good and gives us what we need according to his big, giant plan.

In the past thirty two years I have learned too much about God to doubt his ultimate goodness.  I waver at times, I definitely have questions, but when it comes down to a final answer I know that God is good.

And I also know that he is not a liar.

Because I wouldn't waste my time on a God like that, I'd just do whatever I wanted, whenever I wanted because it God is bad AND a liar he is definitely not getting my allegiance.

The truth is, he has my allegiance, because he has shown me countless times that he is good, and trustworthy and truthful.

So what do I do with need?  How do I quantify what is a need?  To stay alive I need three things; food, clothing and shelter from the elements.

If I live somewhere really warm, we could probably take it down to one: food.  Because really and truly if you life somewhere balmy the last two won't really kill you if you don't have them.

Except that would be embarrassing... and pretty unreasonable.

However, is the ultimate goal of life just to stay alive?  

Good luck with that one, because no one is getting out of this life alive.

Here is what I think this really all comes down to.

If you are a follower of God he has a plan for your life and a deadline for your life.

He will give you everything you need to carry out the plan, and then he'll take you out of here.

So needs are really all of his deciding if you have given your allegiance to him.

When if comes down to what we REALLY, REALLY NEED, there is only one thing.  We need to know God, we NEED to know that when we leave this world we will meet him and he will accept us.

This is a need he HAS undeniably supplied for everyone and it came a a great personal sacrifice to himself.

He gave us Jesus, his death to pay for or sin, and his resurrection to prove that there is life after death (I'll write about that soon) and hope that this life is not all there is.

So all REAL needs are met, we just have to ask God to give us a relationship with him.

His answer will be yes, so don't worry about that.

"He has given life, and godliness, and the knowledge of him who called us, for his own glory and goodness."
So go ahead and trust him.
He's good, he's good, he's goooooooooooooooooood.

Amen